Kentucky Fried Chicken-Kenya, popularly known as KFC, on Monday said that they have suffered a shortage of potatoes at its outlets in Kenya following delays in delivery from its overseas suppliers, forcing it to offer customers alternative food items in place of French fries.
KFC said that during the period when French fries will not be available in its outlets in Kenya, customers will be offered swap options with items such as chicken, buns, soda, coleslaw and ugali for combo meals.
The Company then took to social media to apologize to its customers for the inconveniences caused.
“Fam it was truly a Furaha December. Mlikula sherehe with your KFC faves. Ya’ll loved our chips a little too much, and we’ve run out,” wrote the company on social media.
“Sorry! Our team is working hard to resolve the issue. In the meantime, here are some SWAP options for combo meals if you are craving our Kuku,” read the KFC statement on Monday.
“Please select one of the items below as a replacement.”
KFC, which operates locally through franchisee Kuku Foods East Africa, does not source potatoes locally on global quality standards.
The firm added that it cannot bypass the approval procedures to allow local farmers to supply to fill in the gap.
“The reason we cannot buy local at the moment is all suppliers need to go through the global QA approval process and we cannot bypass that even if we run out to ensure that our food is safe for consumption by our customers,” he said.
This is set to deny local farmers whose product goes to waste during harvesting seasons the chance to reap from the lucrative tenders, especially during shortages like this. It is also not clear why it has taken the company more than 10 years to vet local farmers or support value chain to meet its standards like the case with other multinationals.
KFC is grappling with the shortage of the popular fries at its local outlets at a time Kenya has seen increased interest from global fast-food outlets such as sandwich chain Subway and ice cream seller Cold Stone Creamery.
Rising disposable household incomes, fast economic growth and a young population are attracting global players to emerging markets, according to a study by McKinsey.
Nairobi also hosts multiple multinational organisations, attracting the global restaurant operators.
